What are some lesser known/interesting stories in Mahabharata?

 

• It took three years for Ved Vyasa to compose the Itihasa Mahabharata.
• World's first test tube baby was Dronacharya. He was born from the spilt semen of sage Baradwaja kept in an earthen vessel.
• The Kouravas and their sister Duhsala were born when a clay ball born from Gandhari's womb was separated into one hundred and one parts by yogic power of Ved Vyasa.
• Parikshit was six months old in Uttara's womb when he was hit by Ashwatthama's Brahmashira astra.
• Draupadi in her previous birth was Nalayani, who was the wife of sage Maudgalya. After enjoying many years in her company, Maudgalya renounced worldly life and went to live in the forest. With a broken heart, Nalayani performed a penance to satisfy Lord Shiva. Satisfied by her devotion, Lord Shiva granted her the boon that in her next birth she would be the wife of five extremely virtuous men.
• Arjuna's birth is the most celebrated one in Mahabharata. When Arjuna was born, many celestial beings assembled to pay their respects to him. Arjuna's birth was attended by Kadru, Vinata, the gandharvas, the apsaras, the serpents Karkotaka, Shesha, Vasuki, Kacchapa, Apakunda and Takshaka, the seven maharshis, the eleven rudras, the twelve adityas, the kumaras, the vasus, the maruts, the vishwadevas and the saddhyas.
• Ved Vyasa imparted a secret divine knowledge called Pratismriti to Yudhishthira, who in turn imparted the knowledge to Arjuna. As a reult of which, Arjuna was able to go to the regions of Indra, Lord Shiva, Varuna, Yama and Kubera, in order to obtain divine weapons from these deities.
• Bhima met Hanuman atop Gandhamadana forest on his way to finding Sougandhika flowers, which he desired to bring for Draupadi. Bhima was delighted on meeting his elder brother and wished to know the conduct of various Yugas from him. Hanuman blessed him and fulfilled his wish. He then showed Bhima direction of Kubera's garden, the source of Sougandhika flowers.
• The birth of Bhishma is an interesting one. Once the eight vasus visited the celestial hermitage of sage Vasistha with their wives. The wife of the eighth vasu desired to have Kamdhenu, the wish fulfilling cow of the sage. Agreeing with his wife, Prabhasa, the eighth vasu stole the cow with the help of other vasus. Sage Vasistha, owing to his power of meditation, discerned that Prabhasa had stolen his cow. In a fit of rage, he cursed all the vasus to be born in the world of humans. Upon the pleading of the vasus, the sage reduced the impact of the curse that they would be liberated from their human birth as soon as they would be born. However, Prabhasa, the real culprit behind Kamdhenu's abduction, would stay for a much longer period of time in the world. Owing to this, Prabhasa was born as Bhishma in the world.
• Among all the illustrious Kshatriyas of the Kuru dynasty, it was Bhishma who had the most number of preceptors. When Bhishma was sixteen, his mother Ganga took him to the world of celestials to be trained by various eminent sages. Brihaspati, the preceptor of Indra, taught Bhishma the duties of the kings. Sukracharya, the preceptor of Bali, taught Bhishma political science. Vasishtha, the sage who cursed Prabhasa, imparted the knowledge of the Vedas to Bhishma. Sanatkumara, a son of Brahma, taught Bhishma the secret of spiritual bliss. Markandeya, the immortal sage, taught Bhishma the customs and traditions of all the races. Parashurama, Jamadagni's valiant son, trained Bhishma in warfare.
• Bhima was one pradesha taller than Arjuna in height. Pradesha means the distance between an outstretched thumb and forefinger.
• The story of Bhima's mace is an interesting one. The mace once belonged to king Youvanashva who hid the weapon in lake Bindu, after he slew his enemies in battle. On Lord Krishna's instructions, the asura Maya went to lake Bindu and brought the mace from the place where it was hidden for generations. Lord Krishna then presented Youvanashva's mace to Bhima. The mace was made entirely of steel and decorated with golden rings. It was four cubits long and had six sides. Furthurmore, Bhima's mace was one and a half times heavier than the mace of Duryodhana.
• Bhima killed the Kaurava brothers in archery combats and not mace fights, as believed, excepting Duryodhana. The weapon which Bhima used to kill the Kaurava brothers was his divine bow Vayaviya, which he obtained from his father Vayu. Bhima used different weapons only against Dusshasana and Duryodhana. He used his sword to rip apart Dusshasana's chest and he used his mace to break Duryodhana's thigh.
• The saga of Arjuna's Gandiva bow started with Lord Brahma, who made the weapon to eliminate evil forces from the three worlds. Having kept the bow with himself for 1000 years, Lord Brahma passed the bow to one of the Prajapatis. The Prajapati kept the bow with himself for another 1000 years. When the time for destruction of the demons had arrived, the Prajapati gave Gandiva to Indra. Shooting innumerable lines of arrows from Gandiva, Indra eliminated the demons with Gandiva and kept it with himself as an emblem of victory for 3585 years. Indra then affectionately passed the bow to Varuna, his younger brother. After keeping the bow for 100 years, Varuna presented Gandiva to Arjuna. This is how Arjuna came to be the possessor of the famous bow. Arjuna was the master of Gandiva bow for 65 years. Gandiva was Arjuna's weapon of choice in Kurukshetra war. 36 years after the war, Arjuna immersed the bow in the sea. Eventually Gandiva returned to it's previous owner, Varuna.
• A lot of speculation has been made as to where Shri Krishna was, when the infamous episode of Draupadi's Vastraharan occurred, and why Shri Krishna didn't prevent the episode from manifesting in the court of Hastinapura. During the time of the gambling match which eventually led to Draupadi's Vastraharan, Shri Krishna was at Dwarka countering a new threat. King Salwa had attacked Dwarka in a flying vehicle, which he obtained as a boon from Lord Shiva. The vehicle, named Saubha, was designed by Vishwakarma for the purpose of aerial fights. Salwa seized the vehicle, owing to Lord Shiva's boon, and attacked Dwarka taking his army in the aerial vehicle. Salwa gained an upper hand in the fight with Shri Krishna's Narayani sena, due to the advantage of his aerial vehicle. On seeing this, Shri Krishna himself attacked Salwa and a fight ensued between them. Salwa applied complex illusions in the battle which bewildered Shri Krishna. For a long period of time, Shri Krishna remained hopeless to win the fight. Eventually regaining his composure and bringing his senses under control, Shri Krishna invoked his discus Sudarshana with proper mantras. The discus, hurled by the god's arm, reduced the vehicle to ashes with Salwa and his army inside it. Thus, Shri Krishna was able to restore life back to normal in Dwarka.
• The saga of Bhagavad Gita started with Shri Krishna, who imparted the eternal yoga to Vivaswan, the Sun god. Vivaswan then imparted this divine knowledge to Manu, progenitor of human beings. Manu narrated Bhagavad Gita to Iskavaku, the founder king of Iskavaku dynasty. In this way, the essence of Shri Krishna's divine song has been handed down by tradition since the beginning of creation.

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What were the various boons given to Bhishma in the Mahabharata?

 Bhishma received the boon of self-willed death from his father Santanu.

The Kuru king Santanu wished to tie the knot with a fisherwoman named Satyavati in a village close to Hastinapura.

However Satyavati's father agreed to give his daughter's hand to Santanu on one condition.

He demanded that Satyavati's son with Santanu should be instated as the successor to the throne of Hastinapura.

The throne of Hastinapura rightfully belonged to Bhishma as he was the son of Ganga the first wife of Santanu.

However Bhishma fulfilled the wish of the fisherman who wished to see his grandson as the ruler of Hastinapura.

Bhishma gave up his claim to the throne of Hastinapura and took the vow of celibacy in front of the fisherman and Santanu.

Santanu bestowed a befitting boon upon Bhishma overwhelmed with his pledge of celibacy.

As per Santanu's boon, Bhishma would be able to choose the time of his death as per will and remain invulnerable to death for generations.

In other words, Bhishma would be immortal and have control over his death.

Bhishma received the boon of a celestial weapon known as Praswapastra from the gods known as Vasus.

Bhishma fought an epic battle with his preceptor Parashurama in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

However he was unable to defeat Parashurama with his own valour in the battle.

The eight gods known as Vasus were Bhishma's celestial brothers.

On witnessing Bhishma's inability to win the battle, Vasus approached him to give a lethal weapon known as Praswapastra which was unknown to Parashurama.

Bhishma decided to invoke Praswapastra on his bow but was stopped by sage Narada.

Upon Narada's pleading, Bhishma decided to withdraw Praswapastra from the battle.

Parashurama considered himself to be defeated since he had no answer to Bhishma's Praswapastra.

Thus Bhishma was able to prevail over Parashurama in the battle.

Hence Bhishma accomplished the unthinkable feat to defeat Parashurama in the battlefield.

Bhishma received the boon of self-willed death from his father Santanu and the boon of the weapon Praswapastra from Vasus.

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What are some interesting facts about Mahabharat?

 Here you go -

1. After the last funeral rites were performed forVichitravirya, Satyavati wept and lamented for her deceased son. Ambika and Ambalika were also greatly overwhelmed at the untimely death of their husband.

Vyasa ( Another son of satyavati came to the palace hearing of his brother's demise)

Vyasa offered obeisances to his mother saying, O mother, I have come to fulfill your desire. Command me at once, and I shall carry out your order.

Satyavati replied - The two wives of Vichitravirya, Ambika and Ambalika, are still living, and I request you to conceive children by them to continue the Kuru dynasty.

Vyasadeva, hearing the appeals of his mother, replied, Since Vichitravirya is my brother, born of your womb, I shall give birth to children who will equal the heavenly gods.

2. Very few know this fact that Duryodhan's daughter was married to one of Lord Krishna's son.

3.

Please don't mind the grammatical errors :)

Comment down the changes , if any ✌🏻

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What are some secret facts about Mahabharata ?

 This one fact made me feel Shakuni is actually not cunning character but just a victim.

Shakuni early life

• Shakuni was born in present day Afghanistan, yester year Gandhara to King Subala.
• He was very much connected to his sister Gandhari.
• As a prince, he started to live his life well but things changed badly after his sister Gandhari marriage to Dhritarashtra.
• According to our Hindu tradition , Gandhari was a manglik meaning person whose horoscope doesn't have Mars in proper place so this can be inauscipious to family. So only a manglik should marry a manglik.
• Knowing this, the King decided to do kumbh vivah meaning getting married to a banana tree and would cut down the banana tree after her marriage to prince.
• Bheeshma was the one who selected princess Gandhari for marrying Dhritarashtra. And they got married and lived well for sometime .
• So this makes Dhritarashtra technically second husband and Dhritarashtra jailed the entire family of Gandhari and ordered to give them only a fistful of rice every day. This was a very hard decision for whole family including king.
• 
  Eventually whole family was in jail and was trying to manage the food with all but soon they got to know that this diet won't make the whole family survive for a long time.
• So Gandhari's father decided and started to give whole fistful of rice to his younger son Shakuni. So Shakuni accepted and started to have whole fistful so that he can avenge his family death as per his dad wish.
• As he is not adolescent and yet a small kid that time, his father twisted his leg and made permanent limp so that he would remember always that he is there to avenge their death .
• Also, he requested Dhritarashtra to set free and said that he would be guardian for Dhritarashtra sons.
• So his last request was fulfilled and Shakuni really became guardian of the Dhritarashtra sons.
• But also he said to Shakuni that that he might use his thigh or also back bone for any avenge purpose and this bones will obey your decision during his complete lifetime.
• This bones were only used as a dice against Pandavas in the elaborate game of dice that followed. It's said that this dice has magical abilities and it would help Shakuni win all games of dice ever played.
• As he was true guardian of all hundred kuaravas and he slowly started showing special attention towards Duryodhana.
• With passage of time, he became so close and trusted person. So Shakuni used this trust to instill hate and wicked thoughts against Pandavas of all time.
• This incident as known started bringing downfall of Pandavas.

image courtesy :Google.

I found this secret of Mahabharata more interesting. A person lived whole life for setting the revenge for his family death.

What are some facts about Mahabharata?

 There was a time when Asuras and Devas would fight all the time. After one of these fights, where the Asuras lost again, their teacher Shukracharya thought of a solution – to obtain the Mritasanjeevani Stotram – a mantra that will make the Asuras invincible. He set out to Shiva’s abode to obtain it through penance and told his Asura disciples to rest in the ashram of his father – Bhrigu.

The Devas knew that the Asuras were living as hermits in the ashram and had no weapons on them. They set out to kill the asuras. The Asuras went and sought the protection of Bhrigu’s wife. She was powerful enough to make Indra immobile. The Devas got scared and ran to Vishnu. Vishnu told them to enter his body for protection. Bhrigu’s wife threatened Vishnu with dire consequences if he did that.

Vishnu got angry and killed the woman with his Sudarshan Chakra. Bhrigu was furious when he heard that his wife was killed. So, he cursed Vishnu – to be born on Earth and suffer the cycles of birth and death several times.

And this is the reason we have had avatars of Vishnu on Earth, and hence the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata

What are some of the least read stories in the Mahabharata?

 Sahadeva knew how to stop the war

When asked by Krishna about how they can prevent the war

Sahadeva replied by going in their weapons room and bringing Bheem’s mace ,Arjuna's gandiva ,his and Nakula's swords and other weapons and replied “ To stop the war we must do these 3 things

First we must destroy Bheems and Arjuna's mace and gandiva as the Pandava forces are depended on them for their victory

Second ,we must send the pandavas and kauravas to the dungeon and make Karna the emperor

Third ,we must send send all the elders like gandari , kunti , dridrastra , vidura , guru drona and krip , bhimsa and vidura to the jungle so that they don't intervene for the second point .

But Sahadeva s suggestions were neglected as Arjuna and Bheem had to take revenge

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Post war after Yudhistir knew the that Karna was his elder brother

Then he ruled on behalf of Karna for 36 years and daily just like Karna did he also donated 15 kilos of gold to the regular public

Karna's youngest son Vrishaketu was the last of Karnas legacy . He was also the last person on the Earth to know the secret of divine weapons . He was trained and given these celestial weapons by lord Krishna and Arjuna .But he was told by the Lord to not to tell it to anyone in the Kaliyuga .

He was later killed by Babruvana the son of Arjuna from Chitraganda during the ashvameda or horse sacrifice

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The insect which bit Karna was THE lord indra himself . He came there so that the Karna would not disturb his teachers sleep but the blood from his body would and enrage Parshuram to give karna a curse for not telling him , his original caste

image source :google

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Bhisma said that he either do one of the following things in Mahabharata

1 He would kill Arjuna

2 He would make Lord krishna Take weapons .

And he was so fierce that he would have killed Arjuna , but Lord Krishna remembered what Bhisma said and Took his Advantage , He broke his own vow and took up a broken chariot wheel to kill Bhisma , to save his helpless Devotee Arjuna .

But was stopped by Arjuna .

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Krshna with the chariot wheel , going towards Bhisma

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Ever wondered Why Lord Krishna , The epitome of rightousness , The reincarnation of Lord Vishnu Himself . Would do a wrong thing of killing Karna when he was Weaponless and He also prompted Arjun to kill Karna from the back .

Well the Answer to this thing goes way back

PAST : When Lord Vishnu told lord Indra that he would incarnate as Krishna and Lord Indra has to give a child to Kunti i.e. Arjuna

Then Lord Indra said that when in treta yuga when Indra had a child i.e. Vali , He was killed in the back by Lord Ram i.e. the incarnate of Lord Vishnu . And he supported Sugreev lord surya’s child . Then Indra said that , Lord vishnu as Krshna must support Arjuna and kill Sun god ‘ child that is Karna in the back .

And thats why Lord Krishna prompted Arjuna to kill Karna in the back to maintain cosmic balance and also to make Indra’s wish true.

another factor would be that Krishna and Arjuna are reincarnations of Nara and narayana, two twins who fought and defeated a demon who was the previous avatar of karna.

the demon had 100 armours that would kill the person who destroyed it. Nara and narayana could revive each other and took turns destroying the armour 99 times. After which the demon went running back to surya.

karna was born with that last armour as his kavach.

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What exactly happened after the Kurukshetra War in the Mahabharata?

 

1. After winning the war of Kurukshetra, Yudhistria with his 4 brothers were crowned the rulers of Hastinapur. Almost 36 years they ruled.

2. After some years, Dhritharastra and Gandhari decided to go Himalayas.

3. Gandhari’s curse to Lord Krishna takes 36 years to materialize i.e leading to his death. A hunter mistakenly shot an arrow to Krishna which leads his death(dissolving Lord Vishnu’s Avatara in Dwapari yuga)

4. Yadavs end up killing each other which leads destruction of Yadava’s.

5. Arjuna performed all funeral rites to Vasudeva, Balarama and Sri Krishna and saved Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavathi and other wives of Krishna along with some other yadavas.

6.Arjuna warrior abilities start to give up.

7. Pandavas decided to go Himalayas,While scaling the Himalayas, the 4 Pandavas and Draupadi fall to their respective failings, but Yudhishthira stays put.

8. The happy reunion in heaven.

Note: Lot of stories/facts there behind for all these 8 points.

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In Mahabharata, how did Bheeshma know that Karna was Kunti's son. Who revealed it to Bheeshma?

 Bhīṣma knew that Karṇa was Kuntī’s son through Devarṣi Nārada, Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, and Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa (Keśava).

On hearing that Bhishma had been brought down, Radheya, bull among men, swiftly came to him, partly because he was terrified. He saw the great-souled one, lying down on his bed of arrows, like the lord, the god Kartikeya, lying down after his birth. The brave one’s eyes were closed. His voice choked with tears, Vrisha (Karna) worshipped the feet of the immensely radiant one who had fallen down. ‘O best of the Kurus! I am Radheya. I have been in your sight, but you have always regarded ‎me with hate.’ He spoke these words. On hearing these words, the aged Kuru used his strength to slowly open his closed eyes and glanced at him. He spoke these affectionate words. He asked the guards to leave and once they were alone, glanced at him with benevolence.

‘“Gangeya embraced him with one arm, like a father towards a son. ‘Come. Come. You have always been my adversary and have always sought to rival me. If you had not come before me, there is no doubt that it would not have been good for you. You are a Kounteya(son of Kunti). You are not Radheya. I have known this from Narada and from Krishna Dvaipayana and Keshava.

• ‎CHAPTER 977(117) Bhishma Vadha Parva, Mahabharata

What are 10 lessons I can learn from the Mahabharata?

 

• It is okay to break a promise if the result would be good to all. Bhishma could have married and become the King after the death of Shanthanu’s other sons, which would have done good to the country.
• No one is completely good, no one is completely bad. Every human in Mahabharata was a shade of grey. No one was totally black. No one was totally white.
• Use words carefully. Once said, they cant be taken back. Draupadi used the words ‘Is son of a blind, blind too?’ Karna called Draupadi a prostitute. All these led to destruction.
• Take right decisions at right time. Yudhistra failed to withdraw gambling before he had to bet on his family and kingdom. Duryodhana failed to accept the deal from Krishna to avoid the war.
• Respect women. In both Ramayanam and Mahabharatam, the death-chapters of antagonists were written because they ill-treated women.
• If you have a dilemma, then choose the one which is your duty. Arjuna got into a dilemma whether he should fight or not. Krishna advised him to fight as that was his duty.
• War is never good. Mahabharata war ended with victory of the side which was relatively more Dharmic, but they too had to pay a lot for the win.
• Never be egoistic or arrogant. In the whole Mahabharata, the job Krishna did was slashing the ego of people.
• Do not support your friends or family in their misdeeds. Had Bhishma, Drona refused to join Duryodhana’s side, he would not have dared to start the war at all.
• Half-baked knowledge is dangerous. Abhimanyu and Ashwattama did the same mistake and they had to pay for it.

What are some mind blowing facts about Bhishma in Mahabharata?

 

1. Bhishma possessed the ability to check the flow of river Ganga with his divine arrows.
2. Bhishma learnt the art of warfare from multiple preceptors like Brihaspati, Shukracharya, Vasishtha and Parashurama.
3. Bhishma learnt all the five forms of warfare from Parashurama. They are namely Mukta, Amukta, Muktamukta, Jantramukta and Mantramukta.
4. Bhishma was thirty-six years old when he took the vow of celibacy known as Brahmacharya.
5. He defeated the invincible king Shalva in archery.
6. He killed a demon named Ugrayudha who plundered the kingdom of Panchala.
7. He defeated all the kings of the earth who were assembled together in the swayambara of Kashi princesses.
8. He countered all the ten thousand arrows with one single arrow which were shot towards him by the kings in the swayambara.
9. Bhishma fought with his preceptor Parashurama for twenty-three days in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
10. Bhishma possessed the divine weapon of Vasus known as Praswapa which was unknown to Parashurama.
11. Bhishma was stopped by sage Narada and other celestial sages when he was about to invoke the weapon Praswapa for defeating Parashurama in the battle.
12. Bhishma was the only warrior in Virat war who succeeded in countering Arjuna's irresistible sleep-inducing weapon known as Sammohanastra.
13. He single-handedly resisted the combined attack of all five Pandava brothers on the 7th day of Kurukshetra war.
14. He defeated powerful warriors of Pandava army like Bhima, Abhimanyu, Dhristadyumna and Satyaki.
15. He killed ten thousand Pandava warriors per day during his term as the Kourava commander for ten days.
16. He fought to such an extent which made even Lord Krishna break the vow of being weaponless in Kurukshetra war.
17. Bhishma gave up his life on the first day of Uttarayana forty days after the conclusion of Kurukshetra war.
18. Bhishma is considered to be one of the twelve Mahajanas the delegated agents of Lord Vishnu who are the knowledgeable about the highest spiritual knowledge known as Bhagavata Dharma.

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What are some interesting pledges taken by any character in the Mahabharata?

 

1. Bhishma took the vow of celibacy and refrained from conjugal relationships throughout the course of his life.
2. Bhishma pledged to serve as a slave to the kings of Hastinapura. Following the pledge, he served as a slave to the kings Chitrangada, Vichitravirya, Pandu and Dhritarashtra.
3. Bhima took the vow that he would kill Duhshasana (responsible for Draupadi's humiliation) like an animal and gratify his anger by drinking Duhshasana's blood in front of all the warriors. Bhima fulfilled his vow on the 17th day of Kurukshetra war.
4. Bhima took the pledge that he would single-handedly kill all the Kourava brothers in battle as a consequence of Draupadi's humiliation at the gambling match. Bhima killed all the Kourava brothers in Kurukshetra war and fulfilled his terrible vow.
5. Bhima took the vow that he would break Duryodhana’s thigh with his mace. Duryodhana showed his thigh to Draupadi with an evil intention and asked her to sit on his thigh. This provoked Bhima to take the terrible vow. Bhima broke Duryodhana's thigh in the mace fight on the 18th day of Kurukshetra war.
6. Arjuna took the vow that he would kill Karna in front of all the Kourava warriors in the battlefield. Arjuna killed Karna on the 17th day of Kurukshetra war and hence fulfilled his vow.
7. Karna took the vow that he would not wash his feet until he killed Arjuna in an encounter. However this was no fulfilled since it was Karna who was killed by Arjuna on the 17th day of Kurukshetra war.
8. Sahadeva took the vow that he would kill Shakuni who was the perpetrator of the infamous gambling match which brought about Draupadi's humiliation. Sahadeva killed Shakuni on the 18th day of Kurukshetra war and succeeded in fulfilling his vow.
9. Dhristadyumna took the pledge that he would kill Drona in an encounter. Drona killed Dhristadyumna's father Drupada on the 15th day of Kurukshetra war. This provoked Dhristadyumna to take the vow in front of all the Pandava warriors. Dhristadyumna beheaded Drona on the 15th day and fulfilled his vow.
10. Ashwatthama (Drona's son) pledged that he would kill Dhristadyumna. Ashwatthama fulfilled this vow when he violently kicked Dhristadyumna to death on the 18th night of Kurukshetra war.
11. Satyaki pledged to kill Bhurishrava for taking revenge for the death of his sons. Bhurishrava killed all the ten sons of Satyaki on the 5th day of Kurukshetra war. Satyaki pledged to take revenge for the death of his sons. He fulfilled his vow when he killed Bhurishrava on the 14th day of Kurukshetra war.
12. Lord Krishna took the vow that he would not raise any weapon in the Kurukshetra war. He momentarily broke his vow twice when he raised a chariot wheel to kill Bhishma on the 3rd day and the 9th day of Kurukshetra war.

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